The invention generally relates to methods and systems for exchanging electronic data among several locations and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for storing, packaging and transferring interrelated information among business partners in a manner that obviates the need for functions commonly performed with a database.
Most business entities have a perpetual need to exchange data among other business entities. Manufacturers, for example, have a constant need to interchange their product data among their business partners in order to keep production flowing efficiently. As business arrangements become more complex, it becomes important to carefully organize data that is shared among business partners. Add to this the ever shortening product life cycles, shortening new product introduction schedules and decreasing profit margins in certain product areas. The complexity of the data becomes immense, requiring cross-referencing of many fields of data. This information may include part description information, pricing information, procurement and inventory information, and many other types of information. This all becomes important as manufacturers are now outsourcing more and more products, further depending on outside business partners.
To complicate matters further, these business partners often exchange information electronically on different and incompatible formats. As a result, many businesses resolve this problem by actually exchanging paper documents among themselves. This of course seems absurd in light of modern day advancements in computer technology. However, most businesses that focus on producing products will not easily change their business practices at the administration level in fear of inhibiting their product flow. In order to gain acceptance by businessmen, any new method of exchanging data needs to be simple, easy and timely to implement and adaptable to the company's platform.
One approach is to employ an Electronic Data Interchange(“EDI”) format. An EDI is typically established between two businesses or entities to securely exchange data. One of the problems with this method is that it is limited to two parties. Another problem is that it is very complicated to implement, having a very extensive protocol standard to which each party must adhere. Moreover, the EDI system has a very high cost and is not flexible to changes in the business. This is not helpful for diverse business relationships having multiple partners. This also makes it difficult to share information, especially when multiple partners contribute information among a complex supply chain of product parts. In the end, the host of the information being used in the supply chain must dictate how the information is distributed by establishing certain business relationships.
For example, an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) can contract to a multitude of contract electronic manufacturing (CEM) companies, also known as electronic manufacturing services (EMS) which collaborate to develop a product, subcontracting parts to different companies. These relationships can form a complex chain of business agreements that require information to be passed among the companies according to the individual agreements. Typically, the OEM governs how the business chain is set up among the multiple partners and dictates how information is passed among the business partners. It can also be the case, however, that information emanates from another part of the supply chain, such as a EMS, which may develop a part, the design of which other partners depend upon for their development. In such situations, information pertaining to the product and its individual parts must flow among the partners in a tightly regulated manner, limiting access to certain confidential information to particular partners. Each partner typically needs to consume the information, including extracting data for use in other software applications. One such application needed in business is accounting applications, such as Microsoft Excell™. Businesses like to organize and use product data for accounting purposes, procurement, inventory and many other business functions. Accomplishing the sharing of information while performing these tasks electronically is very difficult, since the partners would need to exchange information amongst them while maintaining each other's trade secrets and confidential information.
Another approach is to allow access to a host database that contains information pertaining to the product line. The major advantage of using a database is that it allows access to a large amount of information in real time. Furthermore, a user that has access to the database can run a program to access data according to certain parameters, allowing the user to gather information according to its own parameters. Mutual access to a database also allows an exchange of data between parties by allowing each party to make certain modifications to data including adding data and deleting obsolete data. Controls can be implemented in order to maintain the integrity of the data among the parties using the database. Also, interrelated information may be searched for and organized under predetermined criteria so that a user can view, manipulate and consume the data in a useful manner.
Unfortunately, there are downsides to using a database that render such an application cumbersome and expensive. First, the data in a database is not easily transportable. All users would need access to the database by some means, such as Internet access or some type of dedicated link such as an EDI as discussed above. Worst of all, access to a database is not very flexible to incompatible systems that may want to access the database and retrieve data. It turns out to be a very expensive and time consuming task, both in terms of man-hours and hardware implementation, to establish such a system. It is also difficult to maintain the integrity of the data, especially in environments of multiple users.
The functionality of accessing large amounts of information that a database provides, however, is extremely useful for gathering and sorting through data. And, in most applications, not all of the functionality that a database provides is required. For example, a product supplier may not need real time data that pertains to a particular part being manufactured. In this example, only a “snap-shot” of the database is required in order to deliver the relevant information to the parts supplier. Furthermore, a product parts supplier typically needs only a subset of the total product information in order to produce a part. Therefore, only a snap-shot of relevant objects in a database is necessary. A parts supplier also may not need to exchange information with a final product producer, obviating the need to directly access the database. It would be useful, though, if the parts supplier could consume and manipulate a subset of the data as it would if it actually had access to the database. It would be very useful, for example, if a parts supplier could have access to a subset of the data contained in the database along with the ability to consume and manipulate the data. If this could be delivered to a parts supplier without the need for a direct link to the database, the owner of the information can retain the integrity of the data and yet allow a parts supplier to consume the data and to efficiently produce the parts.
Some applications provide the ability to separately send a snapshot of a text document and allow text editing, such as Adobe Acrobat™ products, including the well known Portable Document File (PDF). Such applications, however, do not provide the ability to easily access a variety of information. They simply offer the ability to send and receive plain documents, without the ability to peruse, manipulate and consume data in a useful manner. In some applications, these types of files may be sent via email, shipped to a remote location on a memory device such as a CDROM or a floppy disk, or actually printed out and sent to the remote location. All of these methods are time consuming and do not provide an accurate or robust supply of information to a remote location.
Therefore, there exists a need for a method and apparatus that can centralize information, maintain trade secrets and confidentiality among business partners and allow access to certain information according to established privileges in an organized, controllable and useful manner, and to operate in a platform independent manner. Such a product would obviate the need for direct access to a database for access to the information and avoids the need for complex individual agreements between business partners that dictate the sharing of data related to each partner's trade secrets and confidential information. As discussed below, the invention accomplishes this in a unique and elegant manner.